The Book of Daniel by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 25, 1908

_The Book of Daniel_

By Editor

_The Test and Failure of the Wise Men of Babylon_

THE EDITOR

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the enchanters, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in the Syrian language, O king, live forever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye make not known unto me the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye show the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor: therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof. They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said, I know of a certainty that ye would gain time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. But if ye make not known unto me the dream, there is but one law for you; for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter, forasmuch as no king, lord, or ruler, hath asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is no other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went forth, and the wise men were to be slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain. Dan. 2: 1-13.

_The Chronology_

It has already been shown upon the authority of the canon of Ptolemy that Nebuchadnezzar commenced his reign as the sole king of Babylon B. C. 604. It follows, therefore, that “the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,” at which time he had the dream told and interpreted in this chapter, was B. C. 603, three years after “the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.”

_Dreams and Their Interpreters_

It is a fact noted by both sacred and secular historians that the Babylonians attached much importance to dreams, and that they were often guided in matters of the greatest importance by the declarations of the interpreters to whom they resorted, even when their interpretations seemed to be contrary to reason or law. It was therefore in harmony with the spirit of the times that Nebuchadnezzar “commanded to call the magicians, and the enchanters, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams.” The distinction between the four orders of wise men whom the king summoned may be briefly stated thus: the magicians, or sacred scribes, were those “learned in the sacred writings and in literature.” The enchanters, or conjurers, whose name was derived from the Hebrew word signifying “to breathe,” “practised their incantations by movements of the breath.” The sorcerers, or wizards, were “addicted to a sort of imposture yet more pernicious because they worked by poisonous drugs and induced real disease, working upon their dupes by terror also. The fundamental idea of this black art is that material substances may have a moral or supernatural power.” The beginning of this craft was with the arch-tempter, when he told Eve that the fruit of the tree was good to make one wise.” The Chaldeans “appear to have formed the priesthood in a special sense, or to have attended to the duties specially devolving on the priests.” In the well-known passage in Isaiah (47:13), they are further subdivided into “the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators,” to whom rebellious Israel is referred for help. Such were the wise men of Babylon to whom Nebuchadnezzar turned in his perplexity, and from whom, according to their professions of ability to make known things hidden from ordinary minds, he was justified in expecting communications from the gods.

_Communion With God_

Ever since man was, through sin, cut off from direct communion with God, the longing of the human heart to re-establish communion with unseen beings has been played upon by the arch-deceiver, who has sought to put himself in place of God. Thus in all ages there has been a professional class under various names or titles claiming to be the medium of communication between this world and that unknown sphere where other orders of beings reside. In ancient times they were known as magicians, enchanters, astrologers, soothsayers, witches, etc., and their modern successors are the clairvoyants, the palmists, the fortune-tellers, and the spiritualist mediums of our times.

The gulf which separates between sinful man and a holy God can be bridged only from the divine side, and any attempt to establish communication from the human side, has been urgently and repeatedly forbidden. The reason for this wise prohibition is easily found. Any effort on the part of man to raise himself from earth to heaven is utterly futile, and the attempt to fathom the secrets of the divine mind by this vain search after God would end only in bringing the human mind under the control of those evil spirits which are cut off from God, and allied to humanity by that experience of sin common to both. Any fellowship with God must originate from action on his part. What is known of God must be revealed to man, not searched out by man. The only way of access to God is through the eternal Son, who

has announced himself to be “the Way.” “Through him we both have our access in one spirit unto the Father.” Spiritualism in all its varied forms is only the manifestation of Satan’s determined purpose to frustrate the plan of salvation, which is made effective by renewing the mind, by himself gaining control of the mind, and thus blunting and beclouding those faculties through which alone it is possible to apprehend the revelation of God. Our only safety is in absolutely repudiating all self-effort at finding out the secret things of God in the whole range of occult sciences, from open spiritualism to the reasoning which is merely human, and to accept revealed knowledge through the divinely ordained channel. “Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.”

_Babylonian Occultism_

The attainments of the Babylonians in the occultism through which they professed to make known hidden things, is thus described by a competent authority: “They were good observers of astronomical phenomena, careful recorders of such observations, and mathematicians of no small repute. Unfortunately, they mixed with their real scientific studies those occult pursuits which, in ages and countries where the elements of true science are not known, are always apt to seduce students from the right path, having attractions against which few men are proof, so long as it is believed that they can really accomplish the end that they propose to themselves. The Babylonians were astrologers no less than astronomers; they professed to cast nativities, to expound dreams, and to foretell events by means of the stars; and though there were always a certain number who kept within the legitimate bounds of science, and repudiated the astrological pretensions of their brethren, yet on the whole it must be allowed that their astronomy was fatally tinged with a mystic and unscientific element.”—“Seven Great Monarchies,” Rawlinson, Vol. II, page 166.

_Philosophy and Revelation_

The dialogue between King Nebuchadnezzar and the wise men of Babylon reveals plainly the difference between human philosophy and divine revelation. The dream had made an indelible impression upon the king, and yet he was unable to recall in his waking moments those workings of his mind through which the impression was conveyed to him in his sleep, and his spirit “is troubled to know the dream.” The demand made of the wise men is a supreme test of their professions. Unable to give them any further information than that he has dreamed a certain dream, the king requires of them to make known the very thoughts of his mind. On their part, like all human philosophers, they demand data upon which to base their reasoning, saying, “Tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” The king’s demand is reinforced by the most severe threat; but again the wise men demand some further information upon which to rest their conclusion, and the king in turn, his suspicions concerning the ability of the wise men being now evidently aroused, urges his demand with the further charge that these professed revealers of secrets “have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak,” pending the discovery of some means of making good their claim to penetrate into, and to make known, secret things. Pressed to the last extremity, the Chaldeans assert that no dweller upon earth is able to comply with the demand of the king, and that such a test was never before brought upon any of their cult. They are constrained to declare that what the king requires is beyond the ken of mortal mind, and that “there is no other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

_Reading the Thoughts_

In the failure of the wise men of Babylon to recall to the king that which had been in his mind, but which had gone from it, we may note the inability of Satan, the master magician, to read the human thoughts. Although his whole occult art was likely to be discredited, yet he was unable to communicate to his representatives the dream which the God of heaven had given and taken away. He could not penetrate the veil, and look into the sanctuary of the soul. God understands the thoughts of man “afar off;” Satan can read what is printed upon the countenance, or what is audibly expressed. By his control of outward circumstances, the god of this world may suggest doubts concerning the character of God, and evil thoughts concerning the divine government, but he can know of his success only as these thoughts are translated into words or acts. God, who can read the mind, can forgive the thoughts of evil and cleanse the heart before these thoughts become conduct, and therefore known to the prince of evil. In this there is comfort for those who fear lest they shall be reproached for those thoughts of the heart which have come unbidden, but which were neither harbored nor wrought out into life.

_The Creed of Heathenism._

When the wise men declared concerning the gods that their dwelling is not with flesh, they gave expression to the creed of Babylon, and to the philosophy of all those systems of heathenism of which Babylon was the fountain-head. To the heathen mind, the gods who presided over human destiny were messengers of wrath rather than of love, whose anger was to be feared and appeased. Sacrifices were offered, gifts were made, and service was rendered, not as expressions of gratitude for blessings received, but as inducements to withhold threatened troubles or to avert impending disaster. No heathen religion contains the conception of a pure and holy God who hates sin and yet loves the sinner, and whose love leads him to give himself in order to deliver man from the bondage of sin.

_The Essence of the Gospel_

In contrast with all this is the gospel of Christ, the only begotten Son, in whom God and man find a meeting-place. This wondrous truth of an indwelling God is thus declared through the prophet: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Of these experiences the temple was both a prophecy and a witness. Jehovah had said, “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them,” and of the tent of meeting he had promised, “There I will meet with the children of Israel; and the tent shall be sanctified by my glory. . . . And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God.” And it was to give knowledge of this very gospel that Daniel and his companions, whose spiritual insight had perceived the lesson of the temple and its services, had been brought to Babylon, and in the providence of God had been prepared to stand before the king.

The outbreaking fury of King Nebuchadnezzar, and his decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be put to death, testify to the arbitrary and despotic character of his rule. The lives of his subjects, even of those who occupied official positions, were wholly in the hands of the monarch. Of Nebuchadnezzar’s absolute power, Daniel afterward spoke in these words: “Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down.” To refuse to comply with the request of such a king was to invite death. Inasmuch as Daniel and his companions were now classed among the wise men of Babylon, they came within the scope of the fateful decree, and faced death with the others.